Winsted Plan Called `Too Vague'

WINSTED — Several residents said a regional blueprint for improving education and fostering diversity is too vague to do any good.

Speaking at a town meeting on the proposed plan Thursday night, they argued that the document is laced with generalities.

``I'm very much against voting on anything as loosely worded as this,'' said Rosemarie Lageux. ``It's very much like the Educational Enhancement Act. You open the door and they sweep in the whole world.''

The state has directed communities to band together into regions and devise a plan to promote diversity and improve the quality of their schools. Winsted and 16 other Northwest Corner towns have developed a series of proposals aimed at fullfilling the state's mandate.

Residents will vote on the document at a referendum Nov. 30. Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Pearson School.

Board of Education Chairwoman Virginia Dethy, who helped create the plan, said it wasn't intended to be the final word on educational quality. ``This is just a conceptual plan,'' she said.

But Richard Walton, a father of four, said he is reluctant to endorse the plan without knowing all the specifics, such as how it would be funded and what the state's role would be.

``This is vague,'' he said. ``And as a taxpayer, I don't like things that are vague.''

Raymond Pavlak said some of the unanswered questions about state funding could have been provided by state Rep. Philip Prelli and other officials from Hartford. ``We're talking around and around and around and getting no answers and no specifics,'' said Pavlak, who was defeated last week in an attempt to unseat Prelli.

Selectman Timothy Moran said the plan may be the town's best chance at preserving local control. ``Of course, it's vague,'' he said. ``The act is vague. We can all say no [but] the lawsuit's going to go through anyway.''

He was referring to the Sheff vs. O'Neill lawsuit, which challenges the premise that poor children in urban schools are receiving the same education as their suburban counterparts.

Some in the community have expressed fears that the plan would result in busing children from Waterbury and other urban school districts to Winsted, but Dethy sought to quiet those anxieties.

``No one, absolutely no one, on any single committee ever talked about busing,'' she said.